拍品专文
Eugne Boudin is one of the great natural self-taught talents among French painters of the nineteenth century. He did not begin studying art seriously until he was twenty years old, and he never received extensive instruction. Nevertheless, his unique sense of light and color, his choice of subject matter, and his encouragement of Claude Monet helped to make him one of the most influential artists of the century.
Indeed, in his own words Boudin expressed the essence of Impressionism:
Everything painted on the spot has a strength, vigour and vivacity of touch that can never be attained in the studio. Three brushstrokes from nature are worth more than two days in the studio at the easel (quoted in The Birth of Impressionism, from Constable to Monet, exh. cat., Glasgow, 1997, p. 23).
It was this skill, best expressed in his freely painted Trouville views, which so inspired Monet. In a letter to his brother on 29 November 1865, Boudin wrote, "I will always be the painter of beaches" (quoted in Eugne Boudin en Normandie, exh. cat., Muse Eugne Boudin, Honfleur, 1998, p. 170).
Throughout his life, Boudin worked incessantly and resolutely in his struggle to transcribe what he called "the simple beauties of nature." Discussing his own work, the artist wrote:
Sometimes when I'm out walking in a melancholy frame of mind, I look at this light which floods the earth, which quivers on the water and plays on clothes and it is frightening to think how much genius is required to capture so many difficulties, how limited a man's spirit is, not being able to input all these things together in his head. And then again I sense that the poetry is there and sense how to capture it. I sometimes catch a glimpse of what would have to be expressed (ibid., p. 90).
Indeed, in his own words Boudin expressed the essence of Impressionism:
Everything painted on the spot has a strength, vigour and vivacity of touch that can never be attained in the studio. Three brushstrokes from nature are worth more than two days in the studio at the easel (quoted in The Birth of Impressionism, from Constable to Monet, exh. cat., Glasgow, 1997, p. 23).
It was this skill, best expressed in his freely painted Trouville views, which so inspired Monet. In a letter to his brother on 29 November 1865, Boudin wrote, "I will always be the painter of beaches" (quoted in Eugne Boudin en Normandie, exh. cat., Muse Eugne Boudin, Honfleur, 1998, p. 170).
Throughout his life, Boudin worked incessantly and resolutely in his struggle to transcribe what he called "the simple beauties of nature." Discussing his own work, the artist wrote:
Sometimes when I'm out walking in a melancholy frame of mind, I look at this light which floods the earth, which quivers on the water and plays on clothes and it is frightening to think how much genius is required to capture so many difficulties, how limited a man's spirit is, not being able to input all these things together in his head. And then again I sense that the poetry is there and sense how to capture it. I sometimes catch a glimpse of what would have to be expressed (ibid., p. 90).